The Albatross and Petrel Agreement renews its support for South Africa’s Mouse-Free Marion Project at its 2024 meetings

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s Azwianewi Makhado represented South Africa at the 2024 ACAP meetings in Peru, reporting on progress with the Mouse-Free Marion Project, photograph by Bree Forrer

The international Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) holds annual meetings of its 13 Parties.  This year the ACAP Advisory Committee and two of its three working groups met in Lima, Peru during August.  At the Eighth Meeting of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group (PaCSWG8), South Africa tabled an Information Paper that gave an update on the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project.

Co-authored by Dr Anton Wolfaardt (MFM Project Manager) and Dr Azwianewi (Newi) Makhado (Oceans & Coasts, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment), the Information Paper was presented at the working group meeting by Newi, who is a PaCSWG and Advisory Committee Member, as well as being South Africa’s National Contact Point for ACAP.

Co-convenors Marco Favero (Argentina), Richard Philips (United Kingdom) and Patricia Serafini (Brazil) in Peru at the Eighth Meeting of ACAP’s Population and Conservation Status Working Group, photograph by Bree Forrer

The MFM Project’s Information Paper (PaCSWG8 Inf 07) describes progress, challenges, and lessons learned from other aerial baiting campaigns relevant to the planned eradication of introduced House Mice from Marion Island.  This includes information from baiting trials and the recent failure of baiting campaigns on Midway (United States) and Gough (United Kingdom) Islands.  The paper states that further trials will be conducted on Marion to examine the performance of baits and the distribution of mice in different habitats.  Undertaking additional trials and recommended investigations will impact both the project's timelines and budget.  Nevertheless, these adjustments are deemed not only justifiable but essential to better understand and mitigate project risks and optimize the likelihood of achieving a successful outcome in this once-off operation.

Attendees at the Eighth Meeting of ACAP’s Population and Conservation Status Working Group, Lima, Peru, 9 August 2024, photograph by Bree Forrer

PaCSWG8, in its report to the 14th Meeting of the ACAP Advisory Committee (AC14) that followed in Peru, welcomed the update and the continued work to complete this important eradication project.  It also encouraged the submission of a report to the next meeting, so important lessons for the planning of eradication attempts are shared globally, including about unsuccessful programmes.  The Advisory Committee Work Programme for 2023 - 2025 (AC 14 Doc. 22) includes a review and update of ACAP’s eradication guidelines (last updated in 2019), in which South Africa will participate during the intersessional period.

The Agreement had previously endorsed the MFM Project at its 2023 meetings held in Edinburgh, Scotland.  The MFM Project is gratified to receive renewed international support from the Parties to the Agreement, noting that it comes from all the nations that support breeding populations of those species of albatrosses and petrels that are known, or are thought, to be impacted by Marion Island’s House Mice.

The MFM Project will continue to report on its progress to the annual meetings of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement as it works towards the eradication of the island’s “killer” mice.

With thanks to Newi Makhado.

Co-published on the Mouse-Free Marion Project website.

References:

Advisory Committee, Secretariat 2024.  Advisory Committee Work Programme 2023 – 2025. Fourteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Lima, Peru, 12 – 16 August 2024.  AC14 Doc 22.  15 pp.

Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels 2023.  Report of the Thirteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 22-26 May.  68 pp.

Phillips, R.A. 2019.  Guidelines for Eradication of Introduced Mammals from Breeding Sites of ACAP-listed seabirds.  Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.  10 pp.

Population and Conservation Status Working Group 2023.  Report of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group.  Thirteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2-6 May 2023.  AC13 Doc 09.  43 pp.

Population and Conservation Status Working Group 2024.  Report of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group.  Fourteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Lima, Peru, 12-16 August 2024.  AC14 Doc 14 Rev 2.  41 pp.

Wolfaardt, A. & Makhado, A. 2023.  The Mouse-Free Marion Project.  Seventh Meeting of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 18-19 May 2023.  PaCSWG7 Inf 05.  5 pp.

Wolfaardt, A. & Makhado, A. 2024.  An Update on the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project.  Eighth Meeting of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group, Lima, Peru, 9 August 2024.  PaCSWG8 Inf 07.  3 pp.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 10 September 2024